The FCC’s newest Commissioner, Brendan Carr, recently visited a community forum in Unalaska, AK to witness firsthand some of the unique challenges associated with bringing broadband to remote communities in the U.S. Arctic. Despite recent impressive progress, many Alaskans are still standing on the wrong side of the digital divide.
“Smart Cities” is an idea that has been around for over a decade, but what is the potential to build smart cities in the Arctic to improve quality of life, safety and increase efficiency? The following framework on connecting an innovation ecosystem represents some of the important building blocks to make Arctic Smart Cities a reality.
GCI joined a number of other leading Arctic stakeholders in Seattle last week for the fifth annual Arctic Encounter Symposium. We came in part to share our experience — lessons we have learned from 40 years of building the largest communications network in the U.S. Arctic. We also came to learn from the wisdom and experience of others.
Junior Kiae Shin and about 120 of her peers are part of the Kodiak World Bridge project, a partnership between the Kodiak Island Borough School District and project-based education group Trillium Learning. Through the A World Bridge project, Kiae and her fellow students are teaming up with scientists at NASA, NOAA and other organizations to design and implement real-world solutions to current Arctic problems and thereby stimulate interest in STEM education.
